Tag Archives: Utah

Here is a guest column from my friend and co-blogger for Kicks Soccer blog, Alex Haueter. He’s quite knowledgable, and he approached me about a post National Championship Game post/column. So here are his words.

When Sam Bradford’s pass fell incomplete on fourth-and-four with about two-and-a-half minutes remaining in Thursday’s BCS National Championship Game, pens hit paper and fingers struck keyboards throughout the country as sports writers began an annual ritual.

The summary of a title game between two good teams?

Don’t be so naive.

Instead, American sportswriters have come to prefer bashing the BCS instead of writing about it. Even in the Associated Press’ summary of the game, the writer includes an obligatory reference to a college playoff system. Florida’s win got it the silverware, but fans of Texas, USC and Utah are hardly willing to acknowledge the Gators as national champions.

Do these other teams have an argument? Of course, they do. Utah did all that was asked of it, winning its games by an average of almost 20 points with an early season win at Michigan and victories over (at the time) 12th-ranked Texas Christian, 14th-ranked Brigham Young and fourth-ranked Alabama, a team that spent much of the season atop the polls. Texas was a missed tackle away from a perfect season, and beat Oklahoma on a neutral field by the same spread as Florida. USC’s stifling defense held its opposition to barely more than a touchdown per game, and probably would have done so against Penn State in the Rose Bowl had the game not been out of hand by halftime.

At the end of the season, the BCS is not the right way to find a national champion. Anything involving computers and algorithms that the average fan can’t understand isn’t. The system it replaced wasn’t perfect, either, but there was room for compromise through split national titles. Those, of course, caused plenty of debate, too. Remember the 1997 season? At the end of the year, Nebraska and Michigan shared the honor, despite the feeling of most pundits that the Cornhuskers would have easily handled the Wolverines had they played at year’s end. Continue reading →

In this Oct. 11, 2008 file photo, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow throws a pass during the first half of an NCAA college football game against LSU in Gainesville, Fla. Tebow and Georgia running back Knowshon Moreno had career days in last year's Florida-Georgia game. Moreno ran for a career-high 188 yards and three touchdowns and led the Bulldogs to a 42-30 victory. Tebow, trying to protect a bruised shoulder, was sacked a career-high six times and never got the Gators going. How each team handles the other's star could be the key again Saturday. (AP)

There are a lot of games to be aware of today, two battles between top ten teams and some traditional rivalry games. There are also many games today that have the chance for upset — so lets take a look at what I’m looking forward to.

The two obvious games of the day at No. 1 Texas at No. 7 Texas Tech and No. 8 Florida at No. 6 Georgia. These two games should be greatly entertaining, and I can’t imagine which will be better.

Starting in the SEC, Florida wants to avenge their loss to Georgia last season at The Swamp. The Gators especially want to be able to win after the way that Georgia celebrated their first touchdown last season — having the whole team run into the endzone and dance in mass.

Urban Meyer has said he doesn’t want his players to talk about, or think about the endzone celebration that the Dawgs did last season.

The Gators will be lead by reigning Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. Tebow has been improving lately after starting slow. However, Tebow isn’t nearly the threat on the ground that he has been Continue reading →